Posted: 2/24/2009 1:51:50 PM EDT
| Can a CB SWR meter be used to adjust an antenna for a mobile Ham Radio? |
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Quoted:
Can a CB SWR meter be used to adjust an antenna for a mobile Ham Radio? "it depends". an SWR meter typically is designed to measure SWR over a range of frequencies –– the less expensive types, a narrower range; and the more expensive types, a wider range. outside of the range specified by the SWR meter manufacturer, the meter's accuracy will be poor and/or you may damage the meter. CB radios operate on a defined set of frequencies around 27MHz. ham radios operate on many different frequencies, some of which are around 28MHz (the 10meter band). however, ham radios also can operate as low as 1.8MHz and as high as 1240MHz (and in fact past that). one commonly used type of mobile ham radios use VHF (2meter band, ~146MHz) and/ or UHF (70cm band, ~440MHz). an inexpensive SWR meter that is designed for CB frequencies (~27MHz) will generally not be very accurate when used to measure VHF and UHF frequencies. on the other hand, if you have a mobile ham radio that uses the 10meter segment of the HF band (~28->29MHZ), an inexpensive SWR meter that is designed for CB frequencies (~27MHz) will work quite well. so, "it depends". what type of SWR meter do you have? what type of ham radio and antenna are you trying to measure the SWR on? ar-jedi |